PESTEL ANALYSIS

POLITICAL

- Impact of the pandemic on the e-commerce industry.

ENVIRONMENTAL

- Ethical manufacturing (fast fashion scandals push interest to ethically reliable companies)

- Rise in awareness of waste issues in general as well as the waste generated by the fashion industry

LEGAL

- Counterfeits and importance placed on the authentication process to reassure the customers.

ECONOMIC

- Re-sale vs Retail prices.

- Low salaries of incoming generations: Gen Z and Millenials are the most interested in resale but the average millennial has experienced slower economic growth since entering the workforce than any other generation in U.S history.

- Continued rise of “Buy now, pay later” purchasing. These types of services, such as AfterPay and Affirm are showing huge growths in usage and interest.

TECHNOLOGICAL

- Rise in interest in e-commerce due to the pandemic. Online sales are expected to continue growing and hit $6.388 trillion – nearly twice that of 2019’s total ecommerce sales.

- Introduction of AR and VR dressing room experiences

SOCIAL

- Continuation in rise of interest in genderless fashion; much as 56% of Gen Z consumers shop outside of their assigned gender categories.

- Continuation of awareness and interest in sustainable fashion - in the last year an average of 27,000 searches for sustainable fashion were made every month.

- Supporting Black-owned businesses emerged in 2020 as one of the most effective ways for people to stand in solidarity with the Black community, something that has become of importance to consumers.

- Luxe Digital reports that the top 15 Luxury fashion brands rising in popularity are as follows: Gucci, Chanel, Hermes, Dior, Louis Vuitton, Rolex, Tiffany, Prada, Versace, Armani, Valentino, Balenciaga, Cartier, Burberry and Omega.

- Demand for understated handbags was nearly 5x stronger than that of statement "logo-mania" handbags in 2020.

- Continuation of rise in purchasing power, specifically from China - Chinese consumers accounted for 90% of the growth in the personal luxury goods market and generated 35% of global luxury spending in 2019.

- Millennial Chinese consumers are growing in appreciation and interest in luxury re-sale; over half of China's secondhand luxury shoppers are below 30 years old. However older generations still tend to dislike the idea of vintage and re-sale items due to cultural social stigmas. Only $1.7 billion accounted for sales of luxury re-sale items in 2018 in china.

- Online International re-sale retailers are completely absent from the market in China. The main second-hand sellers are online platforms Plum and Feiyu. Chinese Vestiare Collective, TRR’s main competitor, has plans to open a ‘logistics hub’ in the region which, as of 2021, are still ongoing and will reportedly begin with targeting Hong Kong consumers. However, the company is facing issues as it as been reported, shipping international goods within China is difficult to do. It has been suggested that it would be better for re-sale companies to focus on gathering inventory solely in China that will then be sold to consumers within the country.